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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 12091986 - 2.3 To: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS Phil Batchelor FROM: County Administrator Contra December 4, 1986 Costa DATE'. SUBJECT; County County Legislative Program SPECIFIC REQUEST(S) OR RECOMMENDATION(S) & BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATIONS: 1 . Acknowledge receipt of the attached report on legislation considered during the 1986 Session of the California Legislature. 2 . Adopt the attached as the Board' s 1987 Legislative Program and authorize the County Administrator to seek introduction of each measure, and to authorize testimony on behalf of the County in support of the Board' s position on each such measure. 3 . Approve and authorize the County Administrator to execute on behalf of the County a contract with D. J. Smith & Associates to perform transportation lobbying services during calendar year 1987 in an amount to be negotiated with Mr. Smith. 4 . Authorize the, County Administrator to enter into contracts with one or more lobbyists to pursue various portions of the Board' s 1987 Legislative Program, or other subjects which are of concern to the County in amounts not to exceed the total funds budgeted by the Board for this subject, subject to reporting the approval of each such contract to the Board periodically. BACKGROUND: ( 1) Attached is a brief report on some of the major pieces of legislation that were considered and either did not pass, did pass and were signed, or passed and were vetoed during the 1986 Session. Since 1521 bills were passed and became law during the 1986 Session, and more than 200 bills were vetoed, with hundreds of others not being approved by the Legislature, it is nearly impossible to provide a comprehensive review of all legislation which was considered which is of interest to the County. This is, therefore, only a very superficial sampling of bills which the County has been concerned with during the session. A more CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT; _ YES SIGNATURE: X RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE X APPROVE _ OTHER '/q C SIGNATURE(S): ACTION OF BOARD ON necpmher q, 1gpgy�p6 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED X OTHER X Also, REQUESTED County Administrator to review feasibility of the County having a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. relative to funding of local programs; and REFERRED Assembly Bills 2948, 3777 and 1809 dealing with hazardous materials and household hazardous wastes 'to the newly esttablished Hazardous Materials Commission. VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE X UNANIMOUS (ABSENT ) AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TARN AYES: NOES: AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD ABSENT: ABSTAIN: OF SUPERV I SOR/S�ON THE DATE SHOWN. 6 CC: County Administrator ATTESTEDPHIL BATCHELOR,BATCHELOR. CLERK OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR OY DEPUTY M382/7-83 Page 2 ( 1) ( continued) comprehensive summary of legislation which was passed and approved by the Governor is being developed and will be sent to the Board Members as soon as it is completed. ( 2) The attached proposed 1987 Legislative Program has been put together from suggestions made by County departments, from issues which were in the County' s 1986 Legislative Program, but were not enacted, and from issues the Board has asked to be included in the 1987 Legislative Program. In some instances, we have included items where the County will simply endorse and work with CSAC, and other organizations, to achieve passage of items. In other cases, items are included which will have to be initiated and pursued by only this County. ( 3 ) D. J. Smith & Associates has done an outstanding job during the 1985-86 Session of the Legislature in accomplishing the legislative objectives that have been set for his firm. As a result, we believe we should again contract with D. J. Smith & Associates for transportation lobbyist services. This contract will include those items listed in the 1987 Legislative Program as items 22 and 24-29. ( 4) During 1986, the County has retained two lobbyists--D. J. Smith & Associates for transportation lobbying, and Jackson/Barish & Associates for all other lobbying work. A copy of each firm' s report for 1986 is attached. This has been the first year in which the County has had a lobbyist for other than transportation issues. One of the things we learned this year was that it is essential to prioritize how a lobbyist spends their time. A lobbyist cannot do a good job on 40 or 50 different issues. Most lobbyists are most effective when they have perhaps 5-10 important issues with which to deal. Jackson/Barish & Associates were probably asked to deal with too many issues and to intervene very late in the process on too many bills. As a result, their time was diluted and they were not able to concentrate their efforts on only a few issues. In addition, most lobbyists will readily admit that different firms are more effective on some subjects than others and are more knowledgeable in some areas than others. D. J. Smith & Associates have been very successful in 1986 as their report reflects. This is true in part because they have focused their attention on one subject and a limited number of issues within that subject. This appears to be a workable model--contract with one firm for a limited number of issues involving a limited number of different subjects, and with another firm for a different subject. We are proposing, therefore, that we proceed in this manner, leaving the decision as to whom we should contract with for which subjects to be determined once the Board' s Legislative Program is adopted and we determine which firms seem to be best able to meet our needs in various areas. REPORT ON SELECTED ACTIONS TAKEN BY THE LEGISLATURE AND THE GOVERNOR IN 1986 During the 1986 half of the two-year Legislative Session a total of 1521 new laws were enacted. Most of these ( a total of 861) were signed into law during the last month of the Session. A total of approximately 279 bills were vetoed by the Governor, almost all on the last day of the Session. Among the more significant actions taken . by the Legislature and the Governor were the following: 1 . SB 2173 (Roberti) would have eliminated the attorney-client privilege as a basis for holding a closed session of the Board of Supervisors and thereby made it nearly impossible for County Counsel to give confidential legal advice to the Board unless the matter were actually involved in litigation, or threatened litigation. SB 2173 was vetoed by the Governor. 2 . AB 2890 (Hannigan) allows the County to reimburse itself for the administrative costs of processing the Supplemental Property Tax Roll as long as the level of assessments on the property tax roll equal 900 of the level required by law. This figure will increase to 95% for any survey conducted by the State Board of Equalization after January 1, 1987 . AB 2890 was signed into law ( Chapter 1457, Statutes. of 1986) . 3 . AB 1159 (Bronzan) would have provided additional revenue to the County for providing outpatient services to Medi-Cal recipients. AB 1159 was vetoed by the Governor. 4 . AB 2912 (Bates) would have provided $458, 000 to fund three day care programs in this County which are presently funded with 100% County funds. AB 2912 was signed by the Governor, but the funds for this County were vetoed out of the bill. Page 2 5 . AB 216 (McAlister) prohibits the State from assessing -any interest or penalties on counties for failing to pay billings for unemployment insurance between May 22, 1984 and September 24, 3.986. The bill also requires that in making reimbursements to local governments for the cost of providing . unemployment insurance coverage, the State consider the amount counties have been billed, not the amount paid, since many counties did not pay the amounts the State billed. AB 216 was signed into law (Chapter 1062, Statutes of 1986) . 6 . AB 672 (Cortese) changes the method of determining the amount of property tax which is to be transferred to a newly incorporated city or a newly formed district and alters the respective responsibilities of the Auditor and LAFCO in making these determinations. AB 672 was signed into law ( Chapter 956, Statutes of 1986) . 7 . AB 942 (Frazee) would revise the law regulating parking violations and change the manner in which parking violations are processed. Roy Chiesa had substantial input into the drafting of this bill. AB 942 was signed into law (Chapter 939, Statutes of 1986) . 8 . AB 1473 (Stirling) would require a redevelopment agency to conduct a public hearing, receive testimony, and consider changes to its redevelopment plan if a school district notifies the redevelopment agency that overcrowding exists in an attendance area within or adjacent to a project area, and that the overcrowding exists because of actions taken by the redevelopment agency. The redevelopment agency would be required to consider amendments to its plan which would alleviate or eliminate the overcrowding. AB 1473 failed passage in the Senate Local Government Committee. Page 3 9 . AB 1809 (Tanner) would require each County solid waste management plan to identify a program for the safe management of hazardous wastes which are generated by households, and which should be separated from the solid waste stream, to the extent the County determines a need for such a plan.. The bill also requires the California Waste Management Board to develop and implement a public information program concerning household hazardous substances. The bill would also authorize cities and counties to increase the solid waste collection fee to offset the cost of establishing, publicizing, and maintaining a household hazardous waste management program. AB 1809 was signed into law (Chapter 574, Statutes of 1986) . 10. AB 1997 (Maxine Waters) would have removed the requirement that an individual have a fixed address in order to qualify for General Assistance. AB 1997 was veoted by the Governor. 11. AB 2187 (Maxine Waters) makes changes to the requirement for submission of area plans and business plans relating to the storage and use of hazardous materials which was enacted in 1985 by AB 2185 . AB 2187 was signed into law ( Chapter 463 , Statutes of 1986) . 12 . AB 2674 (Connelly) makes changes to the agenda requirement of Board of Supervisors ( and other local agencies) and generally prohibits action on any item which did not appear on the agenda (extra items) . AB 2674 was signed into law ( Chapter 641, Statutes of 1986) . 13 . AB 2759 (Clute) would have required the Department of Veterans Affairs to enter into agreements with State agencies which benefit from the services of County Veterans Service officers and authorize these funds to be disbursed to counties to support their veterans' service officers. AB 2759 was vetoed by the Governor. Page 4 14. AB 3216 (Robinson) would have appropriated $17 . 6 million to counties for social service programs and $50 million to counties for health care for medically indigent adults. AB 3216 .was signed by the Governor ( Chapter 892, Statutes of 1986) , but the Governor reduced the appropriations by 500. 15 . AB 3299 (Vasconcellos) would allow a county to advance a transportation project in the State' s priority schedule through the use of its own funds, and then replace the advanced project with another project. This bill would have been particularly important if this County' s Measure C, the sales tax increase, had passed. AB 3299 was signed into law ( Chapter 797, Statutes of 1986) . 16 . AB 3314 (Leonard) places restrictions on the County' s ability to collect development fees for residential developments prior to the date of final inspection, or the date the certificate of occupancy is issued and will require that certain actions be taken before fees can be collected at an earlier date. AB 3314 was signed into law ( Chapter 685, Statutes of 1986) . 17 . AB 3838 (Baker) authorizes preliminary work to be undertaken on a second bridge across the Carquinez Straits parallel to the Benicia-Martinez bridge. AB 3838 was signed into law ( Chapter 831, Statutes of 1986) . 18. AB 4107 (Mountjoy) would require the State Department of Transportation to grant an encroachment permit to any applicant within 60 days of receiving a completed application. Failure to deny the application within 60 days would be deemed to constitute approval of the permit. AB 4107 was signed into law ( Chapter 1003, Statutes of 1986) . Page 5 19. SB 111 (Carpenter) would extend the dental disease prevention program indefinitely and make it available to children who are preschool through the 6th grade. SB 111 was signed into law ( Chapter 1194, Statutes of 1986) . 20. SB 878 (Boatwright) would authorize the Board of Supervisors to place a measure on the ballot to determine the willingness of the voters to increase the sales tax by 1/2 cent for transportation and transit purposes. SB 878 was allowed to become law without the Governor' s signature ( Chapter 301, Statutes of 1986) . 21 . SB 1454 (Bill Greene) provides that any fee or monetary exaction imposed as a condition of approving a development or development project may not exceed the estimated reasonable cost of providing the service or facility for which the fee or exaction is imposed. SB 1454 was signed into law (Chapter 1203, Statutes of 1986) . 22 . SB 1699 (Royce) increases the liability of an individual for the expense of an emergency response by a public agency when the response was caused by . the individual' s negligent operation of a motor vehicle, boat, or civil aircraft from $500 to $1000 and clarifies that the salaries of the persons responding to the incident may be included in determining the expense of an emergency response. SB 1699 was signed into law ( Chapter 1112, Statutes of 1986 ) . 23 . SB 1863 (Bergeson) removes the $1500 maximum limitation on the amount LAFCO can charge to' process an application, would require LAFCO to fix the appropriation limit for a newly incorporated city or newly established district, and changes the manner of estimating the population of a newly incorporated city in such a way as to generally reduce the population estimate used to determine the proportion of taxes the newly incorporated. city receives, although the bill was watered down considerably before final passage. SB 1863 was signed into law ( Chapter 1242, Statutes of 1986) . Page 6 24. SB 2042 (Watson) requires all courts statewide to allow persons to plead not guilty to a parking violation by mail. SB 2042 was signed into law ( Chapter 631, Statutes of 1986) . . 25. AB 3777 (LaFollette) makes additional changes and additions to the hazardous materials storage and handling bill enacted in 1985 by AB 2185 . AB 3777 was signed into law ( Chapter 1260, Statutes of 1986) . . 26. AB 2948 (Tanner) authorizes a county to prepare a hazardous waste management plan separate from the solid waste management plan, and if a county chooses to do so, specifies the content of the plan and process to be followed, and provides funding for the cost of preparing the plan. AB 2948 was signed into law ( Chapter 1504, Statutes of 1986) . 1987 LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM COUNTY OF CONTRA COSTA 1 . Amend Government Code Section 72062 and Penal Code Section 1205 to add Contra Costa County to the list of those counties authorized to establish a municipal court administrative assessment to cover the cost of recording and maintaining a record of convictions for Vehicle Code violations, the cost of notifying the DMV and to establish a fee in both the municipal and superior courts for the processing of accounts receivable for fines owed in criminal cases. . Senator Petris carried SB 1740, which orginally added only Alameda County, to allow any county to establish such a program. At the last moment, the bill was amended back to include only Alameda County. Senator Petris' staff says the failure to leave Contra Costa County in the bill was an oversight. 2. Reinstate the Abandoned ;Vehicle Trust Fund by imposing a $1.00 surcharge on vehicle registrations to finance efforts by the CHP or local agencies to tow abandoned vehicles. 3 . Amend provisions added by AB 2601 (Chapter 1059, Statutes of 1986) to increase the value of an abandoned vehicle which can be disposed of through an expedited procedure from $100 to $300 . 4 . Reintroduce legislation to provide funds for We Care, Lynn Day Treatment, and the Therapeutic Nursery School as was done in AB 2912, but vetoed by the Governor. 5. Support efforts to be made by CSAC to get the $25 million in funds for the MIA program restored. The Legislature passed AB 3216 in 1986 to restore the entire $50 million which had been vetoed by the Governor, but the Governor again vetoed half of the funds out of AB 3216. 6 . Support efforts by CSAC and others to get additional funds for disproportionate provider outpatient reimbursement as was done in AB 1159 in 1986 . AB 1159 passed the Legislature, but was vetoed by the Governor. 7 . Support efforts to reintroduce legislation similar to AB 3734 (Harris) which would have created a special task force for drug-related crimes, depending on how much funding becomes available from the new federal anti-drug legislation. Page 2 8. Add Contra Costa County to the list of counties authorized to add an additional penalty assessment for traffic fines to provide funding for the Courthouse Construction Fund and Temporary Construction Fund similar to SB 2363 (Bergeson) which failed passage during 1986. 9 . Seek amendment to Penal Code Section 1463 .22 to change the method of calculating the amount we have to send the state for citations for driving without proof of insurance. Currently, we have to send a specified amount to the State for each such ticket issued, regardless of whether or not the person is convicted. Most such cases are dismissed when the driver supplies the court with proof of insurance. We never collect any fine, but still have to pay money to the State. Senator Robbins carried SB 1592 in 1986 which would have changed the basis for the payment to every conviction. This provision was eliminated in the Assembly Ways and Means Committee. 10. Reintroduce legislation similar to AB 2759 of 1986 to provide funds for the Veterans Service Officer from the savings that are generated in other state agencies due to the efforts of Veterans Service Officers. AB 2759 passed the Legislature in 1986, but was vetoed by the Governor. 11 . Seek amendments to Penal Code Section 1463 to allow counties to retain 100% of the fines and forfeitures for CHP arrests made on state highways. Currently, cities receive 50% of such fines and forfeitures even though no city staff are involved in issuing the ticket, processing it, or collecting the fine or forfeiture. 12. Add three new Superior Court departments; one effective January 1, 1988 and two additional ones at the discretion of the Board of Supervisors. 13. Introduce the annual municipal court pay and staffing bill to conform state law to pay and staffing changes already approved by the Board of Supervisors. 14. Repeal Government Code Section 73362.1 (e) and ( f) which currently sunset the County' s authority to use temporary court commissioners as of January 1, 1988. 15. Amend Penal Code Sections 1463 . 14 and 1463.16 to authorize the court to separately impose the $50 assessment for the Criminal Laboratory Fund and the Alcoholism Fund as an added sanction on each DUI conviction. Page 3 16. Amend Vehicle Code Section 16028a to allow the court to impose a $10 administrative fee as a condition of the mandatory dismissal provided in this section for cases in which the defendant furnishes proof of valid auto insurance. 17 . Amend Vehicle Code Section 42006 to allow the existing $1 night court assessment to be imposed in traffic school diversion cases as is done with all other traffic cases. 18. Amend Code of Civil Procedure Section 117 .14 to increase the small claims court fee for certified mail from $3 .00 to $5.00. 19 . Amend Government Code Section 68090.7 to increase the fee for automating civil record-keeping systems from $1 .00 to $3 . 00 and extend its applicability to small claims cases. 20. Add Section 65101. 5 to the Government Code to permit the Board to appoint city councilpersons or city planning commissioners to the County Planning Commission or regional planning commissions. Currently, holding such offices at the same time are considered incompatible offices. 21 . Repeal the requirement that transportation services for extended day care programs can only be provided by school districts. Similar legislation was included in a comprehensive day care bill carried by Senator Roberti in 1986 (SB 1754) . The bill was vetoed by the Governor for reasons not associated with this provision. Supervisor Torlakson asked for this legislation in 1986 to resolve a problem where a Pittsburg day care center had state-licensed and certified buses available whereas the Pittsburg School District did not have the resources to provide transportation and the day care center was prohibited by this provision from using their own buses to provide transportation. 22. Rename Highway 4 in Contra Costa County the "California Delta Highway" . 23 . Oppose any efforts to pass legislation which would amend the Fire District Law in such a way as to make it easier to change the governing board of existing fire districts from the Board of Supervisors to a new independently elected governing board. We understand such legislation is being prepared by the staff of the Senate Local Government Committee. Page 4 24. Monitor activities of the California Transportation Commission so as to protect the funds which have been designated for projects in Contra Costa County. 25 . Increase the toll on the Benicia-Martinez Bridge to a level necessary to pay for the new second span. 26. Insure that the California Transportation Commission defines State Route 93 as being synonymous with our North Richmond Bypass project to insure that the State will assume operating and maintenance responsibility once the highway is built. 27 . Provide the California Transportation Commission with a preliminary indication of the uses we intend for the Southern Pacific right-of-way by June of 1987 . 28. Introduce any legislation needed to clarify the responsibilities of the Board of Equalization in enforcing the imposition of sales tax on the purchase of a new vehicle based on the residence of the purchaser rather than the location of the purchase. Also include any additional clean-up legislation required to make SB 878 workable in Contra Costa County. 29. Extend provisions of SB 1794 which provide tax advantages to private sector employees who rideshare to public sector employees in order to encourage ridesharing by County and other public sector employees. 30. Support efforts of CSAC to obtain legislation requiring funding of State-mandated local programs. 31. Support efforts of CSAC to obtain legislation providing a pass-through of sales tax revenue to counties, or otherwise deal constructively with the fact that the State may exceed their "Gann" expenditure limit during the 1986-87 or 1987-88 fiscal years. 32. Seek legislation which will indemnify the members of the Board of Supervisors and members of the Retirement Board from liability for alleged violation of their fiduciary responsibilities if they vote to divest the County retirement fund from holdings in firms doing business in South Africa.